31
NO!!!!!
Get out. Get out now. As in, do not train there even one more time.
There is always the chance of being injured in any martial art. That's true of any active sport, of course--but "combat sports" have an intention of everyone getting hit, kicked, etc. The requirement for safety is therefore paramount. You need to train safely if you are going to be ...
27
Everything that's physically challenging carries the chance of injury. Deal with it.
Running risks joint degeneration. Bicycling can be bad for sexual function and mobility. Hikers get lost and freeze to death. Tennis causes elbow pain. Soccer players blow out their knees. Baseball players risk concussions from wayward pitches to the head. Lifting weights ...
16
Yes, but... (and it's a big "but")
Two things stimulate bone density:
Damage
Generally our biological systems are set up so that if something is damaged, cells lay down more, tougher material since clearly what we had before wasn't quite tough enough. In other tissues, this forms as scar tissue which can reduce your mobility, however bone just gives ...
11
A common precaution is to wear wrestling headgear, which is designed to protect the ears, while practicing. Cauliflower ear is caused by impacts or rubbing on the ear. Headgear will reduce both of these.
10
You're answering your own question here.
In sparring they can't go light and hit with momentum and throw dangerous moves.
I have seen another guy get an elbow to on the back of his neck and haven't seen him in weeks
I got a very strong hook that gave me a huge black eye (after asking for them to go lighter).
Last week during a seminar in knee drills a guy ...
9
Visit a couple of dojos that interest you and ask about their injury record.
Look for older students; once you cross 50, injuries count more and heal slower. Moreover you're more likely to have other injuries that complicate your practice.
Ask about training with injuries, and "opt-out". I can no longer do kneeling work, and when I visit a new dojo I ...
9
I clacked my teeth together during a takedown and ended up with a tiny chip of one of my front teeth. Now I never get on the mats without a mouthguard.
If you have trouble breathing with a normal mouthguard, ask your dentist for the kind of guard meant to prevent damage if you grind your teeth when you sleep. It's a little thinner and harder, and won't be ...
9
In a case where you have to face more than one opponent, in a case where putting someone into submission is not enough to end the fight:
If you're more comfortable with the idea of using submissions, then you can train for that: arts/skills such as Chin-Na, some schools of jujitsu, hapkido, aikido... all teach joint locks that let you control one opponent ...
9
Yes, playing judo introduces the risk of brain injury.
Judo is a contact sport. Competitive judo is a very contact sport. If you play rough and don't take ukemi properly, you risk concussion. The risk is not as great as in boxing or striking arts. The risk is manageable for nearly all trainees, especially people who don't compete at the elite levels or who ...
8
The main thing to understand is that your are in charge of how you train. So if you would like to train light contact, or no contact at all, you should be able to. If your club does not respect that, they are not worthy: Martial Arts nowadays is not as it used to be in terms of need. We need it less for warfare and more for self-defence. As different people ...
8
Virtually all of the martial arts use the hands in some way. Even Taekwondo, which uses mostly kicks during sparring, will use the hands to block and punch. Whereas, grappling arts use the hands to grab onto the gi or wrists or whatever. It's not uncommon in Brazilian Jiujitsu or Judo to sprain your pinky and ring fingers due to the fact that your grip ...
8
Drills are meant to teach your muscles to perform a technique properly. I would pad the hell out of the recipient before I let another student hit him/her full-force. It's not about inflicting damage, it's about learning how to do something properly and with force. That's how I do it anyway. There's no sense in punching the hell out of each other each time. ...
8
There's two goals here, and they don't necessarily overlap.
Less harmful techniques
The techniques less likely to result in serious injury or death for your opponent(s) are to restrain them. Unfortunately, restraining them requires tying up part of your body to do so - limiting your mobility and your ability to defend yourself against others.
These ...
8
An analysis of the literature in 2006 presented data for a number of team and individual contact sports.
Concussions in boxing were identified at a rate of 0.8/10 rounds (for pros) or 7.9/1000 man-minutes (amateur). So in a pro bout you can expect one guy or the other to be concussed on average, and one guy or the other to be concussed per hour on average ...
8
Yes, hitting objects does make your bones more solid.
Bones are primarily made up of two parts, and outer layer and an inner layer.
The outer is a thin layer of compact bone (cortical bone). The inner layer is far less compact and is known as spongy or cancellous bone.
The thin layer provides up to 80% of the strength of the bone despite covering a much ...
8
Parlor tricks
Just about all of the demonstrations along these lines you will see are set up in such a way that the force is not applied the way you think.
Breaking sticks over back? Notice that the striking point is the middle of the stick, not towards the tip. Breaking a spear with the neck? The spear tip goes into the suprasternal notch and the ...
7
There's a few things here that I want to address:
I did start thinking about owning a gun and getting a license to carry a concealed weapon after that
I feel for you; no one should have to go through what you went through. Let me say this first off: I am 100% for responsible firearms ownership. That said, many people become victims of crimes and ...
7
Despite ice's enduring popularity and former recommendations for its use in RICE (rest, ice, compression, elevation) treatment, ice is no longer recommended for reducing inflammation or bruising. Gabe Mirkin, MD, who first coined the RICE mnemonic, explains on his blog dated Sept 2015 that ice delays recovery from injury.
PhysicalTherapyWeb tells a similar ...
7
Fighting disciplines (such as Muay Thai, boxing etc.) Can cause multiple eye traumas. If your vision becomes blurry or if the pain doesn't go away you might want to consider consulting a physician.
You can learn more on potential eye injury from blow to the head by reading these articles:
Giovinazzo VJ, Yannuzzi LA, Sorenson JA, Delrowe DJ, Cambell EA. "...
7
First, context. Unless you live in a place where a lot of random fistfights/assaults happen, you're mostly only going to be targeted for a mugging - which is primarily someone wanting to get your belongings - not someone trying to waste time beating or hurting you out the blue.
Second, if they are trying to hurt you, while your "hands are your ...
7
I train in Taekwondo and had a similar problem with my knees (though after a few years of training).
At the time, my doctor diagnosed "chondromalacia patella", which he said was caused by an imbalance in strength of tendons/ligaments across the knee. He prescribed a set of exercises to help balance the strength. These exercises were quite simple and didn't ...
7
Based on this NYTimes article: The frequency of judo deaths in Japan gives 108 deaths since 1983. I will not paraphrase the article but other nationality report no deaths in the last decade or so. I am going to assume that those deaths were directly resulting from judo and not just happened while judo was going on.
Thus your risk of dying are increased if ...
answered Jun 10 '15 at 15:25
Sardathrion - against SE abuse
14.6k3 gold badges44 silver badges118 bronze badges
6
Talk to your doctor/physical therapist for the details on what you should avoid, but in general:
Avoid arts that involve kicks, especially high kicks.
Avoid arts that emphasize deep stances.
Avoid tournament arts.
Kicking and deeper stances are, in general, significantly harder on the knees and the surrounding tissue. Not that you can't work up to it ...
6
You need ask yourself a question: What do I want to achieve in martial arts?
If you want a sport first place - injury guaranteed
If you want the cultural experience - no injury
If you want self-defense - depends on the system, injury might occur
Usually martial arts are without contact or more usually instructors are keeping everyone safe so nothing ...
6
Yes, you have a high risk of getting your nose broken at some stage if you continue with Muay Thai. It isn't Tiddly Winks* - you will eventually get an injury, not just from landed punches but also from kicks.
If you are at all attached to your nose (pun intended) then reconsider Muay Thai. Personally I've had my nose broken half a dozen times or more - ...
6
You should get out.
While it's true that any training there is a spectrum of how hard you may want to go - from the no-contact doing only forms kind of training up to folks like the Dog Brothers using full force stick fighting... the fact is that there's a point after which you are taking injuries and gaining nothing.
And if the school is going harder than ...
6
Blisters can happen initially. I think it happens to everyone new to stick fighting. It's nothing to be too worried about. It probably just means you were over-eager in your training and went too hard or too long. No big deal.
It can also happen if you don't train regularly. Like if you just go once a week, your hand never gets used to it, so you get ...
6
When I was doing Doce Pares Escrima several years ago, I ran into the same problem. I used cloth athletic/medical tape to cover up the blistered areas to give them a chance to heal and at one point, when I found that it was a particular part of the stick rubbing up against my hand (an area where the lacquer had gotten roughed up from impact, actually), I put ...
6
I've had one very minor chip from being seoinage'd (by a girl half my size). Some guys wear mouthguards, especially in newaza (ground fighting), and it's not a bad idea.
6
While certainly some injuries are contraindicated to different movements, it really depends on the specific injury and the extent.
Having a muscle tear is different than multiple fractures with pins in your joints is different than tendon tears is different than cartilage loss - and all of it depends on the joint and your specific movement ability after ...
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